Nov. 15, 2020
Dear Friends in Christ,
We are writing you about the status of New Wilmington Presbyterian Church’s current capital campaign. As you will remember, a capital campaign committee has been working with the congregation for some time to develop a list of needed church building renovations/enhancements, develop architectural plans for these projects, and begin the process of raising money to support them. The three projects that the committee ultimately decided to pursue were: air conditioning the sanctuary, completely renovating the social hall (including new restrooms), and enhancing accessibility and hospitality through the addition of a new elevator and entry way renovations. Ten percent of the money raised will be set aside for mission.
We are happy to write of success! By the grace of God and the devotion of some dedicated, but anonymous, donors in the congregation, we have been able to fund and will soon begin installation of sanctuary air conditioning. We are deeply grateful for the willingness of donors at the church to support this enhancement to our sanctuary and mission. Next summer should be cool!
We also want to let you know that given the pandemic, the committee has decided that it will suspend the remainder of its campaign until late spring or early summer of next year, 2021 (a vaccine may well be becoming available and we can gather outdoors more comfortably). The capital campaign is imagined to be both a community building and fundraising activity involving the entire congregation in conversation and fellowship in both small group and large group settings. COVID-19’s arrival in our community, and communities across the country, has made elements of the campaign nearly impossible. While the committee may continue to hold planning meetings (via ZOOM as it has since March), public activities will not continue until at least late spring of 2021. Obviously, we are disappointed in needing to call a halt to our efforts at this time. Yet we are grateful for your prayers and support and for the fact that we have been able to make progress, even through the pandemic.
Finally, some of you, for tax or spiritual reasons, may want to give all of or a portion of your anticipated capital campaign gift before the end of 2020. Be assured that if you’d like to do that (or if you and a couple friends would like to fund the entire social hall renovation ☺), we stand ready to accept your partial pledge/donation now. We’ll escrow it away until the committee resumes its work next year. Before deciding to do so, please contact one of us on the committee to discuss your donation and we will happily work with you.
In hope and gratitude,
Betsy Boyd
Timothy Cuff, co-chair
Nicole Hunter
Scott McGrath
Angie Mohr-Urban, co-chair
Kristen Phillips
Ken Romig
